Montreal Swaps AHL Goalies with Tampa Bay

The Montreal Canadiens made a minor trade with the Tampa Bay Lightning Thursday, sending goalie Cedrick Desjardins south for Dustin Tokarski. This trade didn’t break the internet the way one involving Roberto Luongo would, but it does have potential to be good for the Habs down the road.

Last season, Tokarski lead the Norfolk Admirals through a dominating season. The Admirals finished atop the AHL standings, with a 55-18-3 record. They also won the Calder Cup as league champions, with Tokarski in-goal for their 12-2 run. And already this season he has a 18-8-4 record with the new Syracuse Crunch.

In seven games for the Lightning, Tokarski went 1-3-1, but when they brought in Anders Lindback to start, he became the odd man out.

Why is this important? Because Tokarski’s career is very similar to a fella named Carry Price. When he was in the AHL, Price led the Hamilton Bulldogs to their own Calder Cup in 2007, going 15-6 in the playoffs. And although Tokarski won’t overtake Price for the starting job, he will fit in nicely as the back up.

Dustin Tokarski was a star for the Norfolk Admirals last year and is joining the Habs looking to make the jump to the NHL.(Fred Kfoury/Icon SMI)

Desjardins, 27, is rejoining the Lightning, the only team he has played with in the NHL. He has a 7-13-2 record for the Hamilton Bulldogs this year and will likely take over the starting job in Syracuse.

This is a great trade for the Habs long-term. With Price only 25 and Tokarski being 23, the Habs are poised to have a strong one-two punch in-goal for a long time.

Hockey has always been a passion of mine and once I realized I would never make it as a player, I still wanted a career in the sport. With my writing, I get to be a part of the sport I love, safely in front of a laptop screen. I am currently studying journalism at Ryerson University in Toronto and I hope my degree and my many writing experiences lead to a successful career in the field.

Hockey has always been a passion of mine and once I realized I would never make it as a player, I still wanted a career in the sport. With my writing, I get to be a part of the sport I love, safely in front of a laptop screen. I am currently studying journalism at Ryerson University in Toronto and I hope my degree and my many writing experiences lead to a successful career in the field.

Tokarski was built in Tampa’s AHL system to be a starter one day…hmmm, just weird. An older average goalie for a really young average goalie even trade. I would have predicted Tampa keeping Tokarski until he was at least better trade collateral. They got nothing in return for him now…just years of wasted time developing him to make a wash-out trade.

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Hooked on Hockey Magazine is an online magazine featuring articles, pictures, and videos in connection to everything hockey relative around the world . Our goal is to provide interesting and relative hockey news for all types of fans from the hockey community.